Country Kids from Coombe Mill

Posted on September 5th, 2014

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Crafts to suit age 2 to 12

Activity sessions on the farm have been running throughout the school holidays. It is only an hour on a Friday but turning it into a fun and effortless looking afternoon of entertainment actually takes quite some planning. Our sign up over the busy summer months has regularly consisted of a full A4 sheet of names with ages ranging from two to twelve across boys and girls. I pride myself in being able to create fun out of little more than what nature provides, but the number and age range can be quite a challenge. On this particular week I decided the best plan was to have a few activities in order to split the children into groups allowing everyone to swap crafts when they were ready. Pretty nature crowns, collages from nature and stick bow and arrows were our chosen selection. Having gathered everyone in the garden we showed our example crafts.

First of all we needed to find our materials as I had only provided paper, pens, glue and examples. The children were soon filled with ideas and inspiration for how they would make their crafts. They lead discovery tour purposefully towards the fairy garden. Here they began to gather sticks, ivy from the floor and interesting leaves and flowers. Venturing down by the river we added to our haul until our buckets were brimming with goodies from nature.

Heading back to the garden the children sat at the table according to which activity they had chosen to begin with. The old nature verses nurture debate came to a swift conclusion as the boys came to me to make bow and arrows while the girls chose to make headdresses with Kym or set to work with paper and glue to create a nature masterpiece. There were a few exceptions but even the girls making bow and arrows soon beautified their sticks with ribbons and flowers; so successfully in fact that many of the boys then embellished theirs too.

I helped a few with how to hold and shoot their new toys and they were delighted with the results testing them over and over.

The girls looked like true princesses with the last of the summer flowers framing their heads.

Animal and nature collages took on a personal touch with each revealing a little of the character of the artist. I was delighted to find a use for some of our alpaca fleeces at last!

All in all we had a class sized party of children happily entertained in their foraging and making together. Age differences seemed to evaporate in significance just as with everything here on the farm, bigger children and adults helping younger ones in the most natural way. If only life could always be like this.

Joining in with Country Kids

Country Kids is all about sharing fun ways to enjoy the great outdoors. I welcome all crafting, learning, exploring and pure play posts anywhere from the forest to the beach or even an urban adventure so long as it is outside. Fresh air and space, the freedom to be kids, to let imaginations run wild and away from the screens they increasingly gravitate towards is something I feel passionate about. Each week I am overwhelmed with the wonderful posts linked up here and take so much inspiration from all you share. Please keep them coming. Grab the badge and link away and see what others have been doing too.

Country Kids is around in these communities, I’d love you to join me there:

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Coombe Mill

“Tales from the farmers wife” shares the funny and interesting happenings on our lovely holiday farm with Farmer Nick and our 6 children. A behind the scenes look on balancing family, farming, the holiday business and cooking for all.

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